By Max Schramm: Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza says they’re looking for opponents at 135 for Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis’ next fight in December.
If Espinoza is correct, Davis could be making a defense of his WBA ‘regular’ 135-lb title against interim champ Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. The World Boxing Association is getting rid of its interim titles, meaning that Davis will likely need to fight Rolly next in December.
It’s a good fight because it would be a match-up that would be sellable for Showtime PPV. If Davis doesn’t fight Rolly, Gary Russell Jr. would be an obvious opponent that would attract many PPV buys.
Espinoza and Showtime can’t just put on a fight between Tank Davis and anybody for pay-per-view.
It’s got to be someone that is either well known or has the ability to sell the fight with Davis due to their ability to hype it. Rolly ISN’T well known, but he’s excellent at talking trash and getting boxing fans interested in seeing his fights.
“It’s one of those divisions, 135, which is primarily what we’re talking about. It’s really splintered, so it’s tough to make the big fights,” said Stephen Espinoza to ESNEWS about Gervonta’s destination for the next fight.
“Right now, we’re looking at who is available that is willing to do a deal.
“What’s the best available fight. Gervonta definitely does want to get back before the end of the year, and we want to do that and keep the momentum going,” said Espinoza.
Espinoza felt that former WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman had too much size for Tank Davis to fight. What Espinoza might not realize is Rolly Romero is just as big as Thurman, if not bigger.
Rolly, 5’8″, is taller than the 5’7″ Thurman, and his reach is virtually identical. Recently, Rolly posted a photo of him weighing in at 181 lbs, and he didn’t look fat.
The reason Rolly can fight at 135 is because of his youth. Younger fighters like Rolly can melt down huge amounts to make weight for divisions well below their natural size.
If Tank fights Rolly, he’ll basically be fighting a 147-pounder just as he would if he fought Thurman. Given Rolly’s huge size, Gervonta might as well fight Thurman at 147 and make the bigger money. Rolly arguably punches harder than Thurman, and he’s someone that will do a lot of damage to Tank Davis.
Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) has already vacated his WBA ‘Super World’ super featherweight title, and he was expected to decide whether to fight at 135 or 140 next.
Espinoza has essentially let the cat out of the bag by informing the boxing public that Tank will be fighting at 135 next, which means he’ll vacate his newly won WBA secondary 140-lb title he won on June 26th, an eleventh round stoppage of Mario Barrios.
The 26-year-old Gervonta holds the WBA ‘regular’ titles in both of those weight classes, and the World Boxing Association is giving him the option to chose one of those two before vacating the other.